Recent content by DCtank

I have a dwarf cory that is swimming upside down in a corkscrew pattern and a red eye tetra whose eyes just started to bulge. Obviously, something is not right. My water parameters in my 29 gallon tank are all fine except my nitrates which I discovered were high (80+) a couple weeks ago. I've...

Don't need dechlorinator... I'm using bottled spring water (my tap water is loaded with chloramines). Lost another fish this morning. Should I put in some sort of medicine...a general antibiotic? Either way, I'll get more water and so another pwc tomorrow.

Aargh. Another dead fish today. A zebra. My numbers are all fine. Anybody have an idea what could be happening in my tank? Nobody looks sick at all. The ONLY thing I noticed -- and only today, not previously -- is that two of the remaining zebras swim through the descending food but they don't...

Everyone looks and acts healthy (the dead ones did, too, before their unexpected deaths) except for the one gold twinbar. He never seemed "right" since I got him. As for another posters comment about stocking quickly, I didn't think so but when I considered my list as I was typing my original...

I'm worried my newish tank is starting to crash. PLEASE ADVISE! My tank is 8 weeks old. Did "fish in" cycle (with 3 platies) and a big bag of bacteria from a massive tank filter at LFS. Numbers were great after one week so I added 3 zebras. Probably too early but all went well. With the help...

After 3 months of a healthy new tank I just lost two fish. The tank finished cycling last month (fish in) and I was so pleased that nothing died the whole time it was cycling. Yesterday, I came home to find a dead swordtail and, when I was getting it out of the tank, noticed a dead zebra, too...

Here's a link for Sun Pet's list of all the fish they sell, including pictures and care information: http://sunpet.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog.viewcategory&categoryID=5

A week ago I found two tiny baby platies in my tank. I didn't even know one of the adults was pregnant. (None of them looked pregnant to me.) The babies are good at hiding because they've survived so far. Their orange colors are just starting to show.

After two months of domestic bliss, my male Sunset Fire Platy is bullying both females in my 29 gallon tank. I thought he was just being amorous but no...he constantly charges after them until they hide. Once, one of the females was so desperate to get away she crashed into the glass. Should I...

For weeks I've been having trouble getting my ammonia readings to zero. The color in the test tube isn't nearly as green as .25ppm but it's not as yellow as 0ppm, either. Water changes yielded no results. I've been using bottled spring water because my tap has high ammonia levels so I decided to...

Everybody, thanks for the advice. I'm going with cory cats. My LFS doesn't have dwarf cats at the moment so I'll wait. I'll probably get a couple Nerite snails, too, but I was surprised to hear they lay eggs. Are y'all SURE they won't hatch in fresh water? I'm surprised to hear they are even...

My tap water has 1 ppm. I feel like I'm pouring poison right into the tank so I've been splurging on bottled water. However, someone on this forum suggested that if I do small water changes (around 10%), then the amount of ammonia going into the tank at any one time is small enough that the...

29 gallons. How different are their "personalities?" Part of me wants the cories because I understand they stay on the bottom more BUT I want pygmy cories because of their size and I've read they actually don't stay on the bottom as much.

I have six zebra danios and they don't school at all. Sometimes two chase each other but that's it. I've seen separate YouTube videos of Lemon Tetras, Rummy Nose Tetras and Bloodfin Tetras schooling. I'm getting some Bloodfins next week.

Does anyone have any advice on choosing between these two kinds of fish? The Cories seem useful for scavenging the bottom for sunken food but the Otos seem better at removing algae. I don't have any greet algae but I do have brown algae (diatoms?).